The Great Wall of China was ranked first overall with 19.8 million visitors, followed by three Disney theme parks. Britain's greatest attraction was apparently not Stonehenge, the Tower of London or Buckingham Palace but a family fun park in Milton Keynes.

A spokesman for Australia's Tourism & Transport Forum, Rowan Barker, declined to dispute the visitor figures but suggested the Opera House had been short-changed.

''We know that people come to Sydney to see the Opera House,'' he said. ''There is no doubt it is an international drawcard.''